Second Interview- Help!

BumblebeeGirl

Sooo i've just been called back for a second interview and was told there will be 2 other people present from the company and they have narrowed the applications down to 3 people including me...so i need advice as to what is going to happen/how do i prepare for this interview and most important, how do i stand out from the other applicants. I really want this job so all tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

jimoc

First thing, relax
being worked up and nervous in an interview communicates itself very quickly to the interviewers.

second, try and turn questions around so that in answering them you always show how you have benefited your previous company or saved them money in some way.

for example (programming example because thats what I do)
'What were you working on recently?'
part of my job was answering customer tech support questions'
I noticed that a lot of the calls coming in were related to one specific screen to do with invoices.
So I investigated the functionality and realised that if we rewrote a specific function that we would cut out 50% of our support calls.
I rewrote and tested it, then presented it to my manager, we deployed it to the customers and cut out over 1/2 the support calls.

thirdly, interviewers are rarely interested in your out of hours activities, they just ask that to see what you say.
if the best you can come up with is to go drinking with your mates, then that shows them that you don't really have much imagination
again, to go back to my own area of expertise, I enjoy mucking about with PCs which demonstrates to the interviewer that I would enjoy my job as long as I got to muck about with PCs
Team sports or anything community related is also a good interest to have as it shows the ability to communicate effectively with others.

finally (for now, until I can think of more), be honest!!!
Nothing screws up an interview worse then you telling a porky and then getting pressed for more details and floundering while you try and think of stuff.

Let us know how you get on!

Kaybe

Some points, in no particular order.....

What was the first interview like - was it very much focused on your CV? If so, maybe pull out the job description again and pinpoint the competencies that are required for the role - quite often, they are spelt out explicitly on the JD . Prepare examples of times when you have demonstrated those competencies. Questions in a Competency Based Interview will normally be phrased along lines of "Tell us about a time whn you had to blah blah blah...." When preparing your examples for those competencies, structure your answer along lines of "What was the situation, what did you do and what was the result".
For example, if you are asked "Can you tell us about a time when you took the role of project manager", then your answer could be along lines of "Well, when I was in Company XYZ, a decision was taken to transfer product from one mfg facility to another. A cross-functional team was pulled together from purchasing, engineering, production and quality depts. I was the PM on the project, and I structured the team (blah blah blah) and the result was that we hit the transfer deadline with 2 days to spare" or some such. Basically you give situation + actions + result.

Keep your answers concise and to the point. Give sufficient information to demonstrate knowledge, but dont get into the minute details . If they want more detail, they can ask a follow-up question.

Think back to the first interview - was there anything that you thought you didn't clarify enough, or that you didn't feel you answered strongly? (Obviously not too much , as you got called back!, but maybe there is..?)
If so, prepare something to conteract that image

Who will be interviewing you this time around , as in what are their roles? Their position in the company will give you some idea of their focus. For instance, if you are interviewing for a Quality Engineering role, and you previously met with the Quality Manager, and now you are meeting with HR and a Snr. Production Manager, then you might assume that the Production Manager will be very focused on production issues and how you might interact with him and his team if you were hired.

Show lots of enthusiasm and interest... ask questions. Prepare your questions in advance, as there's nothing worse than sitting there and drawing a blank when the interviewer says "Do you have any questions for us?".

Good luck with the interview!

BumblebeeGirl

Thanks for the replies, i got a call this morning asking for references, so im guessing im still in the running!

The decision for the job will be made tomorrow so im a little anxious today...Does the reference determine who gets the job? Or do you think employers have already made a decision on who to hire but they just need to double check the persons background?

jimoc

From my experience references are really just down to following procedure, usually the decision is made long before references are considered.
In my particular case, I had been working at my new job for 3 months before the company even got references from my former employers

Of course, if the company gets a really negative reference or one which just says 'This person worked for us' then that could sway their decision if it is very close to going from positive to negative. In the vast majority of cases though they don't really make a difference.

niceirishfella

Good luck!

BumblebeeGirl

Oh ok...its very hard to know what decision they have made, they had narrowed it down to three people for the second interview so i cant figure out whether theyre asking everyone for references or just me.

So nervous..ill know pretty soon i guess!

BumblebeeGirl

Got the job!

Thanks for all the advice!!

Otis Driftwood

Thats great news,good for you.:)

niceirishfella

YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!


congrats! Some good news in the gloom for a change.

jimoc

Congratulations!!!!